Thursday, February 24, 2011

UK madness: false tolerance devours the tolerated

Not content with imposing homosexuality on unsympathetic businesses and institutions, UK elites are now considering moves to punish gay-themed businesses for not catering to straights.

Ed West's piece in The Telegraph suggests that maybe, just maybe, we ought to tolerate some social prejudices and exclusions until simple human contact and persuasion can make changes.

"The Equality and Human Rights Commission is examining whether 'gay-only' guesthouses breach new laws designed to prevent people being treated unfairly in the provision of goods or services...

Discrimination exists in every aspect of life, whether it’s age ('no more than two children allowed into the shop') class ('no workman’s overalls') or sex, and in every branch of commerce where businesses attempt to attract a particular demographic and avoid another. [In attempting to regulate this]the law becomes a series of contests between identity groups. The only winners are lawyers and government officials.

The irony is that, under our equality laws, the Stonewall Inn could have been shut down on discrimination grounds, while the hiring of West Indian and Pakistani workers in the 1950s and 60s would have broken racial discrimination laws. It’s time we claimed the word 'discrimination' back for its original, morally neutral meaning, starting with a declaration that the state should start discriminating between what is and isn’t its business."